Report: Forward’s Yiddish Website Will Tap New Markets

The Forward reports: The rapid revival of strict Orthodox Jewish communities that has shifted New York City’s religious demographics and transformed Israel’s political landscape has created a new market niche for a 115-year-old Yiddish newspaper.

Next Monday, Forverts (Forward) will launch a daily news website for Yiddish speakers who are bringing the language of Eastern Europe’s Ashkenazi Jews back from its near-death experience when millions of speakers died in the Holocaust.

The New York-based weekly, launched in 1897 as a crusading socialist daily for Jewish immigrants to the United States, has been in slow decline since 1945. It cut back to weekly from daily publishing in 1983 and launched an English-language weekly in 1990.

“The website is going for an international audience,” said associate editor Itzik Gottesman, noting the ranks of native speakers, mostly from Hasidic and yeshiva (religious school) backgrounds, was now booming in the United States, Israel and other countries.

“Research in New York City said there are 80,000 Hasidim who speak Yiddish at home. That population is exploding,” he said. Read more here.

If my memory is correct, the forward has been very backwards in their reporting and relationship with the Torah community. I would like to give credit to our oylam that they are smart enough to realize that this is only business as usual, however the forward is not and should never be read, certainly not purchased by the oylam hachasidus and the yeshiva oylem. Their using yiddish should be compared to the zionists using hebrew.

Their original goal was to help Jews coming from Europe become secular and liberal. They would throw a bone here and there by having one or two Torah columns by chashuver talmidei chachamim, but that was mostly to fool people to read their liberal propaganda. Their current goal is probably to reach out to the at risk and otd crowd, to shmad up a new generation of yiddish speaking yidden and to help them assilimilate. RL!

The Forward, one of the most anti-Jewish and anti-religious ‘jewish’newspapers, is actually thinking of catering to the ultra-orthodox community? Just hope they are not foolish enough to buy their paper; can’t think of a more anti-religious and leftist paper than theirs, only the New York Times. If they’re not making money, they need to do much t’shuva or close up shop. And, a little advice to the ultra-chareidi community: stop going leftwards; it’s everything that goes against Torah.